Gas Natural SDG : Fenosa is joining the technology hub Barcelona Tech City as a Global Partner

• The energy company will be opening its own centre inside the hub's headquarters, in Barcelona's Palau de Mar.

GAS NATURAL FENOSA signed an agreement today, under which it is to become a Global Partner with the technology cluster Barcelona Tech City, an international benchmark in the sector that has been welcoming the digital ecosystem's strongest start-ups and established companies since its launch three years ago. The energy company will be opening its own centre in the Pier01 building, the new headquarters of this technology hub, in Barcelona's Palau de Mar.

As part of its collaboration with Barcelona Tech City, GAS NATURAL FENOSA is to join the association's Advisory Board, its highest governing body, which is made up of the association's main partners.

The centre that GAS NATURAL FENOSA will be opening in the Pier01 building, the technology hub's headquarters, will play host to innovation activities linked to new technologies, including product displays, pitches to market, start-up accelerators and themed talks.

Barcelona Tech City, a benchmark technology hub in southern Europe

The Barcelona Tech City cluster goes from strength to strength. The association has become southern Europe's benchmark technology hub since its establishment a mere three years ago. The cluster already has over 300 members and represents more than 330 businesses in Barcelona's technology sector. The cluster's main goals include: promote the Barcelona technology brand; support entrepreneurs; foster digitisation as a driving force for change in organisations; attract investors and international talent; raise the global profiles of start-ups based in Barcelona and develop connections through initiatives with international impact such as Mobile World Capital.

As Miguel Vicente, the Chair of Barcelona Tech City, put it, 'GAS NATURAL FENOSA's coming on board our Global Partners panel is a very clear example of the changes that large corporations are undergoing. They are ready to cross their own boundaries and make a decisive move towards the way that start-ups and entrepreneurs innovate and operate. Its incorporation represents a very important landmark, given that it also enables us to push one of our main founding goals further: 'digitisation as a driving force for change in traditional industry and commerce', by taking start-ups up to large corporations keen to increase their capacities for innovation and competitiveness'.

Barcelona, 20 July 2016.